Guests arriving at Bianca Spender’s resort 2026 show were greeted with a pencil (no eraser, minimalist, chic) and a small card that read “WHAT ARE YOU HOLDING ONTO TODAY THAT YOU NEED TO LET GO OF?” with a line underneath for a response. In the back it read LETTING GO CAN FEEL LIKE A SURGING SWELL, RUSHING, CRASHING, AND TUMBLING. All are adjectives also used to describe the motion of the ocean, the waves. “I go ocean swimming, and you dive in and then when you come out on the other side, it’s like there’s been this wash over you,” the designer explained backstage after the show. “I wanted the collection to wash over everyone as well.”

This was a body-conscious collection in that it revealed the body with barely-there swimsuits and lots of sheer fabrics, but it also considered the body as belonging to women, as being part of nature. There was nary a hard edge to be found, nothing to bind the body and restrict its movement. Cropped balloon blouses, cocoon skirts, and sweeping chiffon gowns sometimes had built-in capes. A series of red on white polka dot chiffon was especially alluring, as were a few pieces in different shades of bubblegum pink.

Tailoring was soft with rounded hems and draped details on soft jackets and trousers and many of the jackets did not have closures—though on a long vest it did give the impression of being unfinished. More successful were a series of sculpted draped gowns in shiny nylon which managed to capture the way water moves around a body in motion. They looked to be made from corsetry or boning but were in fact a ponte mesh. “They actually all slip on,” Spender explained. “I thought I can’t create all this liquid-y [feeling] and then put on something that restricts you and you can’t breathe. This season we really pushed how we construct things so they still feel light and breathe with you.”